1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to audio recording and reproducing, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for designating an audio portion that a user wishes to mark as a highlight portion, recording the audio portion on a recording medium and reproducing the audio highlight portion, and a recording medium for storing additional information for the same audio highlight portion.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a plurality of pieces of music are recorded on a recording medium such as a compact disc (CD), a digital audio tape (DAT), a digital versatile disc (DVD)-audio or a mini disc (MD), an intro function is used to identify music which a user wants to reproduce in conventional technology. According to the conventional intro function, all the pieces of music recorded on a recording medium are sequentially reproduced such that the opening portion of each piece of music is reproduced for about 10 seconds.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional intro function on a CD. Referring to FIG. 1, at operation S1, a user selects an intro function. At operation S2, a CD player jumps to a first track on a CD loaded thereon. At operation S3, the opening portion of data of the first track is reproduced for about 10 seconds. After reproducing the data of the first track for about 10 seconds, at operation S4, the CD player determines whether there is another track from which data will be reproduced. When it is determined that there is another track from which data will be reproduced, at operation S5, the CD player jumps to the next track. Then, the operation S3 is performed. On the other hand, when it is determined that there is no track from which data will be reproduced at operation S4, the CD player terminates reproduction. A CD loaded on the CD player may have a plurality of tracks, and one or more pieces of music can be recorded on one track.
The opening portion of most music is recorded on a recording medium with an audio signal having a very small amount of audio data, or the opening portion of the piece may not be a portion by which the piece is most easily recognized. Accordingly, it is difficult for a user to identify reproduced music using an intro function of reproducing the opening portion of music for about 10 seconds.